OLYMPIA — Lawmakers are considering expanding the state’s medical marijuana law to allow registered nurses, physician assistants and naturopathic doctors to recommend pot to their patients.
Currently, only medical doctors can recommend medical marijuana.
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, the bill’s sponsor, argues that patients in rural areas have to drive too far in order to find a doctor to recommend the drug to them.
“I’m trying to visualize someone suffering from the ravages of cancer having to travel a few hundred miles to talk to a physician,” Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, said Thursday at a hearing before the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Under state law, marijuana cannot be prescribed, but doctors may recommend it to their patients by signing a form that patients can carry with them as protection against arrest for pot possession.
Supporters of the bill say many who could be eligible to use marijuana don’t have regular access to a doctor.
Joanna McKee, a co-founder of the Green Cross, a medical marijuana advocacy group, noted that nurses and physician assistants already provide significant levels of care to people.
“So if they are the primary person giving care, why not let them recommend it to people too?” she asked.
Law enforcement groups oppose the bill, arguing it would lead to more abuse of the medical marijuana law.
“Not everybody out there is using it as medical marijuana,” said Bill Hanson, a lobbyist for the Fraternal Order of Police.
The bill’s current wording does not mention naturopaths but Kohl-Welles said she wants to amend it to include them.
Dr. Robert May, executive director of the Washington Association of Naturopathic Physicians, told the committee that naturopathic doctors specialize in organic and natural medicines and therefore should be allowed to recommend marijuana.
Washington’s medical marijuana law was approved by nearly 60 percent of voters in 1998, close behind California in the first wave of similar measures around the country.
Federal law does not recognize a legal medical use for marijuana. But under Washington’s law, doctors are allowed to recommend marijuana for people suffering from “intractable pain” and some serious diseases, including cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
Marijuana patients still can be arrested and prosecuted, but may avoid conviction in state courts by proving a legitimate medical need.
Doug Hiatt, a Seattle lawyer who represents medical marijuana users across the state, said he hopes expanding who can recommend pot will demonstrate to authorities the legitimacy of the drug’s medicinal purposes.
Elsewhere in the Legislature:
Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, said she was alarmed by the committee vote. If approved by the Legislature, Roach said the bill would lead to increased crime and more automobile deaths.
“This is a bill that comes right out of downtown Seattle,” she declared. “Any time we have downtown Seattle dictating social mores across the state it’s a problem.”
McCaslin said the measure could save the state as much as $3 million a year in jail fees and court costs.
“The state is in the liquor business — which is one of the most harmful drugs on the market — the federal government is in the tobacco business, and we’re putting people in jail for marijuana?” McCaslin said.
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